‘If I was any more relaxed I’d be unconscious. Please, Zac, just go. It must be late, and I have to be up for work in the morning.’
He slid off the bed and stood looking down at her. ‘If you are sure I can’t do anything for you?’
He’d done more than enough, Sally thought, but didn’t say it. ‘No—except close the door on your way out.’ And she closed her eyes to block him from her view, because he actually looked and sounded as if he cared, which she knew he did not.
She listened to the muffled sounds of him dressing. She felt him place the coverlet gently over her and brush his lips against her cheek, and heard his murmured, ‘Sleep well, Sally, and I’ll see you tomorrow.’ She didn’t open her eyes. ‘We have a deal, remember?’
She heard his footsteps on the wooden floor, and the door closing.
When she was sure Zac was gone Sally opened her eyes and slipped out of bed to pad along to the bathroom. She turned on the shower and stood under the soothing spray—except it did not soothe her. The events of the evening played over and over in her tired mind.
Zac and his ultimatum: become his mistress or watch her father destroyed. The amazing experience of making love—no, not love but lust. And Zac’s reminder when he left that they had a deal.
All that and the actual reality of her life combined together to almost defeat her.
&n
bsp; Overcome by a complex mixture of emotions, she felt the tears leak from her eyes. She cried for her mum and for herself until she had no tears left. Finally she turned off the shower, dried her eyes and her body, and walked back to bed. She withdrew a clean sheet from a cupboard in the unit, and changed the bedlinen. Then she took a cotton nightdress from a drawer, slipped it over her head and crawled into bed. She curled up into a ball and fell into a deep, blessedly dreamless sleep of sheer exhaustion.
Chapter Nine
SALLY blinked and opened her eyes. The brilliant rays of the morning sun shining through the window had woken her. Good, the rain from last night had stopped and the sky was a perfect blue, she noted, and stretched her limbs prior to getting out of bed. Then she remembered, as muscles she had not known she had screamed in protest.
She closed her eyes again, in a futile attempt to block out what had happened. But it was no good. A vivid image of Zac’s naked body poised over hers flashed in her mind: the moment he’d possessed her, and her own avid response not once but again and again. Her nipples tightened at the memory. She had almost begged him to take her the last time…Ashamed at her own reaction, she leapt out of bed and dashed to the bathroom.
Showered and dressed in a green button-through shirt-style dress in easy-care cotton, bought from a High Street department store, she made and drank a cup of coffee and ate a bowl of cornflakes. She washed the china in the sink and stood it on the draining board. Then, taking her keys off the hook on the wall, she put them in her taupe leather shoulder bag. She slipped her feet into flat matching sandals and, flinging the chain strap of her bag over her shoulder, she headed for the door.
The ringing of the telephone stopped her in her tracks. Her heart sank. Please not my mother, she prayed, and answered the phone.
‘Good morning, Sally,’ a deep husky voice drawled in her ear, setting every nerve in her body on edge. Oh, no! she groaned silently. Zac.
‘Good morning,’ she said stiffly. ‘What do you want? And make it fast—I am on my way to work.’
‘You know what I want, Sally. You,’ he delivered, with a deep throaty chuckle. ‘But for now I will settle for knowing what time you finish work. I will pick you up.’
‘That isn’t necessary,’ she snapped, and was glad he could not see her blush. ‘I will be back here by seven-thirty at the latest.’
‘Not good enough…What time, Sally?’ he demanded, all humour banished from his tone.
Reluctantly she told him five-thirty, and hung up.
Zac had done his homework and discovered that the museum staff usually left by a side exit door with a short flight of steps leading down to the pavement. He parked the black Bentley Coupe on the opposite side of the road and checked the time: five minutes to go. Leaping out, he leant casually against the passenger side of the car, his legs crossed at the ankles, and waited. He was totally unaware of the admiring glances cast his way by the passing female population, his whole attention focused on the exit.
He saw Sally the moment she walked out of the door, and he swept his gaze leisurely over her even as his groin tightened in instant response at the sight of her. She was wearing a simple jade-green dress, and the evening sun glinted gold on her red hair, looped in a knot of curls on top of her head. She was a vision in green and gold and she was all his…But not tonight. He was determined to keep his libido in check.
Sally was new to sex and she needed time to recover and to come to terms with what had happened between them. He had not been the most sensitive of lovers, certainly not the second time, and though the sex had been incredible he wasn’t exactly proud of the fact.
The beginnings of a smile curled his lips but quickly turned to a frown as he realised she was not alone. A tall, blond-haired man, impeccably dressed and carrying a briefcase, was at her side. Sally stopped on the bottom step, and the man said something to her that made her laugh. He flicked a stray curl from her face and kissed her cheek, then turned and strolled away with a wave.
Sally waved goodbye to her boss and turned to step down onto the pavement. She glanced to left and right. With a bit of luck Zac would be waiting at the front of the building and she could avoid him a little longer, she thought, still smiling. Then she glanced across the road and her heart missed a beat.
Zac was leaning with negligent ease against the side of a black convertible. Tall, his olive-toned skin sun-kissed to a deep gold, his black hair dishevelled, he was wearing navy trousers and a pale blue shirt, with a cashmere sweater draped across his broad shoulders.
How was it, she wondered, that Italian men had a way with casual clothes like no other nationality? He looked every inch the Italian tycoon, and pure alpha male. He made no move to approach her, but simply lifted a hand in greeting…or was it a command? Either way, it made no difference. Her choice had been made last night, and she walked across the road and stopped in front of him.
‘Hello…’ Lifting her chin, she connected with his dark eyes and said inanely, ‘I see you found me okay.’ Suddenly she was having difficulty breathing as his virile sexuality hit her like a blow to the heart. Not twenty-four hours ago she had been naked in bed with this man, behaving in a previously unimaginable way. Her cheeks turned pink at the thought.
‘Did you doubt it?’ he asked, with an arrogant arch of one ebony brow.